HOW TO TEACH DANCING DYNAMICS?
looking back to the classics.
Ballet Teacher Larry Long commented, "Sometimes today, it's a bit of a battle to get dancers to keep their legs down. It's as big of a battle as it was in the old days to get 'em up."*
Dancing dynamics is important to me. It is the shading that takes my choreography into a magical realm - It is the choices that make a movement mine. It is the tool that allows me to express my self, allowing me to 'talk" movement in such a way that people will want to listen. As I look at dancers in class and performance, I rarely see the exploration of the potential of a movement - and hence have no sense of the personality or soul of the dancer. How can one communicate clearly if the dancer is not even aware that more potential exists in the limbs that move so big?
I think of the time spent with my teacher who danced with the Ballet Russe. Madame stressed arms, por du bras, upper body expression - Her style was so different from the athletic quality I was studying elsewhere in Boston at that time. We were swans, sylphs, princesses in those late afternoon classes - boureeing across her cherry wood dance floor was magic. It wasn't until years later I realised the gifts she gave me - The wonder of exploring the range of a movement; the small, as well as the big, the slow verses the fast, the sharp and the smooth - and the ability to make a decision on which movement shading is an appropriate choice for that moment - Keys to self expression.
So how does a contemporary choreographer/dancer teach 21st century ballet dancers dynamic? I turn back to the Classics for inspiration - the swans, sylphs and princesses. In homage to Madame, I start tonight with a Les Sylphides infused class. A class that will work to transport the dancers into a land of magic and self expression...
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Galina Ulanova in the waltz from Les Sylphides
*p.164 The Art of Teaching Ballet Ten Twentieth Century Masters By Gretchen Ward Warren
